Omar Salgado suffered a fracture of undetermined severity in his right foot during an international Under-20 friendly in Monte video, Uruguay, on Wednesday.

A first-half substitute for the United States U-20 national team, the El Pasoan injured his foot and was removed in the 82nd minute of Uruguay's 4-2 victory.

Salgado was en route to Vancouver from South America Friday and will be evaluated further today. He was not available for comment.

"We have a training session (today) and we should know more then," Vancouver manager of media relations Nathan Vanstone said.

"We are disappointed to hear about Omar's injury," said Whitecaps FC head coach Martin Rennie in a statement released by the team. "While it is a setback for him, we are confident that he will have a full recovery."

Salgado said in an interview early last week, when Vancou ver began a two-week break from MLS action, that he wasn't planning on accompanying the U.S. squad on it's South American tour, but he changed his mind.

The 18-year-old El Pasoan, who was the No. 1 pick of last season's MLS SuperDraft, was having a breakout season after a move from striker to left wing. He started five of his six MLS appearances for 385 minutes of action, recording one assist.

He also had an assist in this year's Amway Canadian Champ ion ship semifinal, first leg, at lower-level NASL side FC Edmon ton on May 2.

"This year coming in I was mostly wanting the opportunity, to work myself into position," he said last week.

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"Every time there is a new coach, I have to show him I can play at this level."

The first-year Whitecaps coach Rennie said Salgado had been adapting well to his new position.

"First of all he seems more comfortable when he's facing defenders and running at them," Rennie said last week. "Often as a central striker you end up playing with your back to goal and I don't know if that's his biggest strength at this moment in his career.

"Second of all, he's good at running against players one v. one or even him against two guys. He's got that ability to go past people, so that's one of his strengths. He's got excellent pace, which I think is very important for a wide player. And he's also an excellent crosser of the ball under pressure, so he's got a lot of attributes I think suit him as a left-sided player, sometimes centrally.

"He can get tied up on his right foot and not be as strong as we'd like to see him. He can still work on all those things, of course, but right now he's contributing a lot on the left-hand side, he's defending very well, he's showing good fitness and running power so he has all the attributes to be a really good left-sided player. We're happy with how he's doing."

Despite his injury, Salgado has shown the promise his team was looking for in his second professional season.

"What we're hoping for is he'll keep developing, keep improving," Rennie said. "If he continues to do that, he'll be a force as a striker. He needs to be better with his back to the goal. He needs to keep working on his strength, his legs, his core. He's gotten more power the last four months but he needs to keep working on that."

He'll have plenty of time to spend in the weight room as he rehabs his right foot.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 546-6359. Follow him on Twitter @bretbloomquist.